question with tal vez that may not accept indicativeI just had this question
Tal vez vosotras ________ cansadas después de bailar.
This was a checkbox question with these options
estuvierais
estuvisteis
estáis
estaréis
estuvieseis
Based on the lesson on this page, I would expect both the indicative and subjunctive to be correct (estuvisteis, estuvierais, estuvieseis).
However, the question had a hint:
(HINT: Conjugate "estar" in El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)
Based on this I left off the indicative and my responses (just estuvierais and estuvieseis) were scored as correct.
The result is that I'm left uncertain about using estuvisteis here, and about the limits of the applicability of the lesson on the page.
If estuvisteis is OK here, then I think the question should be revised to not have that hint, and to check for the three correct answers. That way students like me wouldn't be confused thinking "Well, in the lesson , it says you can use indicative or subjunctive with no change in meaning. But here, apparently the indicative is wrong, so that lesson can't be trusted. I wonder what the real pattern is. I guess I'll need to look elsewhere to find out."
On the other hand, if the indicative is wrong here, then I think this lesson, or some other lesson, should give some hint about why that is so, since I'm reading this lesson as saying that either the subjunctive or indicative is OK.
Thanks for your help!
Hi,
The two problems with use of English posted some time ago are still not fixed. Hence, I'm still struggling to get to grips with this lesson.
"If I went to the hairdresser's" in English means; "If I were to go". They are equivqlent.
Similarly. "If he had an accident" is equivalent to " if he were to have an accident".
In both cases, the first sentence is common usage. The second using the the subjunctive is very uncommon in everyday English.
Hola Inma,
I'm trying to understand better why the subjunctive is used. Are negative opinions like no creo que, no opino que, no pienso que, no parece que etc, always assumed to reflect an element of doubt on the part of the person i.e. "I don't think so .... but I may be wrong."
If you are adamant that the negative opinion is correct [for example using one of the examples in the associated lesson] "I don't think María is jealous," couldn't that also be taken as a clear statement of my opinion without any doubt in my head at least? This would be possible in English. In which case would it be expressed differently in Spanish for example "Estoy seguro de que María no es celosa."
Saludos. John
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degustation
I use a tablet to practice Lawless Spanish while on the treadmill. I am unable to place accent marks with the tablet, usually this is not a problem as those answers go into the nearly correct column. My answer to: Los estudiantes ya _____ las instrucciones, han leido was marked wrong. This is inconsistent and confusing. Please look into this.
On the quiz, the question was: Es ________ hora; ven más tarde.
My answer was “una mala” and it was marked wrong. It was supposed to be just “mala”.
Could please explain why “una mala” is incorrect? It didn’t mention anything in the text about not using the article. Thanks.
Why did we use ustedes instead of usted ?
I recommend linking to Difference between cuándo and cuando in Spanish (with and without an accent) as a related topic.
I just had this question
Tal vez vosotras ________ cansadas después de bailar.
This was a checkbox question with these options
estuvierais
estuvisteis
estáis
estaréis
estuvieseis
Based on the lesson on this page, I would expect both the indicative and subjunctive to be correct (estuvisteis, estuvierais, estuvieseis).
However, the question had a hint:
(HINT: Conjugate "estar" in El Imperfecto de Subjuntivo)
Based on this I left off the indicative and my responses (just estuvierais and estuvieseis) were scored as correct.
The result is that I'm left uncertain about using estuvisteis here, and about the limits of the applicability of the lesson on the page.
If estuvisteis is OK here, then I think the question should be revised to not have that hint, and to check for the three correct answers. That way students like me wouldn't be confused thinking "Well, in the lesson , it says you can use indicative or subjunctive with no change in meaning. But here, apparently the indicative is wrong, so that lesson can't be trusted. I wonder what the real pattern is. I guess I'll need to look elsewhere to find out."
On the other hand, if the indicative is wrong here, then I think this lesson, or some other lesson, should give some hint about why that is so, since I'm reading this lesson as saying that either the subjunctive or indicative is OK.
Thanks for your help!
Hola Inma,
I'd like some help with the following. Since the present and indefinido "we" form of -ar verbs are spelled the same, I would like to check something. The related lessons are all about the indefinido, but there is a strong implication that some of the events would still be on-going, such as cultivating crops etc, raising livestock and producing electricity. Do we assume that these are no longer being carried out, or does this narrative style of events over a fixed period of time allow us to use the indefinido throughout, even if some of the events have been started and are still ongoing?
Saludos
John
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